Eye In The Sky

Tools To Pierce The Heavens

April 08, 1990|By Ron Kotulak.

Designed to revolutionize man`s understanding of the universe, the space telescope is equipped with six remarkable instruments:

Wide field/planetary camera. Able to read a license plate 30 miles away, this camera will help determine the age of the universe and search for planets around other stars. Astronomers will be able to get images of the planets in our solar system that will be about as good as those from the Voyager spacecraft.

Faint-object camera. This camera can identify the head or tail on a nickel six miles away. Astronomers will be able to see objects 25 times fainter than now possible from the ground, enabling them to determine the size of the universe, look into the centers of globular star clusters, and search for distant quasars.

Faint-object spectrograph. Distant objects that now appear as one will be clearly separated with this instrument that can tell the left headlight of a car from the right at a distance of 2,500 miles. It will determine the chemical composition of celestial objects, and their temperature, velocity and magnetic fields. It will determine what the mysterious quasars are made of.

Goddard high-resolution spectrograph. In one blink of an eye, this instrument is capable of taking five measurements of interstellar gas and dust, planetary atmospheres, molecules and dust grains in space, and the abundances of elements in space.

High-speed photometer. Searching for elusive black holes, this supersensitive light meter will be able to detect changes in radiation that occur in only 1/100,000th of a second.

Fine-guidance sensors. Designed to point the telescope with an accuracy that is the equivalent of sinking a 1,500-mile golf putt, this equipment will also be used to measure exact distances of stars.